Welcome
Welcome to the Health Sciences Library's Nursing Guide. McMaster's Faculty of Health Sciences places a strong focus on problem-based learning and evidence-informed decision making, both of which require students to have a strong understanding of the information resources available through the library.
When seeking health information, it is always best to take a systematic approach. It is a process that involves identifying information needs in the form of a question, deciding which resources might hold the answer, and developing a search strategy appropriate to capturing the necessary information.
Whether your needs relate to coursework, clinical situations, or original research, this guide will help support the effective and efficient retrieval of such information.
Using This Guide
Forming Questions - This tab will help you determine exactly what your information needs are and express them as a question.
Background & 6S/Foreground Info - Depending on the type of question you end up with, these tabs will recommend the best resources to find the answer.
Further Research - This tab is tailored to the information needs of nurses working on research projects (e.g grey literature resources, interdisciplinary databases, search tools, etc.)
Clinical - This tab contains tools and resources useful to nurses working in clinical settings (e.g. mobile apps, free online resources, entry to practice competencies, etc.)
Nursing Theory - This tab covers information relating to the various theoretical frameworks underlying nursing research and practice.
If you have any suggestions for additions to this guide, please contact Sarah Cairns.
Evidence-Informed Decision Making at McMaster
Evidence-informed decision making (EIDM) is a broad concept referring to the incorporation of valid and relevant external evidence during the decision making process.
In nursing, such evidence is most commonly found in high-quality research studies that can be applied to the specific patient or population being considered.
As McMaster nursing students, the concept of EIDM runs through all aspects of your academic curriculum: from theory to research to clinical decision-making and beyond.
The resources available at the Health Sciences Library can help you find the best available evidence to support these processes, but this is only one piece of the EIDM puzzle (See Fig. 1)
Evidence-Informed Decision Making: Just for Fun!
Some Studies That I Like to Quote by James McCormack
Viva La Evidence! by James McCormack
New to Searching?
Check out these helpful HSL tutorials for tips on conducting an effective and efficient search!
- Database FundamentalsA primer on the foundations of database searching
- CINAHL TutorialsSearching the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health (CINAHL) database
- Ovid Medline TutorialsSearching the biomedical database Medline, using the Ovid search interface
Guide Contact
Guide Creator
Off-Campus Access
The small lock icon 
beside a link indicates this is an online library resource. When you click on the resource link from off-campus you'll be redirected to a login page. Login using your MacID and password to access the content.
